Recently, a fingerprint identification technology has been applied to a variety of electronic products. By using the fingerprint identification technology, the user's fingerprint can be inputted into an electronic product and saved in the electronic product. For unlocking the electronic product, the user has to input the fingerprint through a fingerprint identification module. The way of unlocking the electronic product by the fingerprint identification technology is faster and more user-friendly than the way of manually inputting the password. Consequently, the fingerprint identification technology is favored by many users, and the demands on the fingerprint identification module are gradually increased.
The structure of a fingerprint identification module will be described as follows. FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional side view illustrating the structure of a conventional fingerprint identification module. As shown in FIG. 1, the fingerprint identification module 1 comprises a sensing die 11, a rigid circuit board 12, a flexible circuit board 13 and a mold compound layer 14. The sensing die 11 is attached on the flexible circuit board 13. In addition, the sensing die 11 is connected with the flexible circuit board 13 by a wire bonding process. The top surface of the sensing die 11 and the top surface of the flexible circuit board 13 are covered by the mold compound layer 14. The sensing die 11, the flexible circuit board 13 and the mold compound layer 14 are collaboratively defined as a fingerprint sensor 10. Moreover, the flexible circuit board 13 is stacked on the rigid circuit board 12 and electrically connected with the rigid circuit board 12.
A method of manufacturing a fingerprint identification module will be described as follows. FIG. 2 is a schematic top view illustrating a sensing strip for producing a fingerprint sensor according to the prior art. The sensing strip 2 comprises plural unseparated fingerprint identification modules 1. The structure of the fingerprint identification module 1 is shown in FIG. 1. In the conventional method of manufacturing the fingerprint identification module, the sensing strip 2 is cut into plural blocks 21 according to the required shape. Each block 21 contains one fingerprint identification module 1. By cutting the sensing strip 2, plural individual fingerprint identification modules 1 are manufactured. However, the conventional method still has some drawbacks. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the area of the discarded region 22 of the sensing strip 2 (i.e., the region indicated by oblique lines) is very large. Since the material utilization of the sensing strip 2 is low, the material cost is high. Moreover, if the sensing strip contains plural fingerprint identification modules 1 with different shapes, the area of the discarded region of the sensing strip increases. Under this circumstance, the material utilization is impaired.
Therefore, there is a need of providing a fingerprint identification module with enhanced material utilization.